Monitoring system and shared access permissions for a plurality of users

ABSTRACT

In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for performing one or more actions based on determined access permissions for a plurality of users. These mechanisms and methods for performing one or more actions based on determined access permissions for a plurality of users can enable improved data collection and analysis, enhanced client knowledge of system access, etc.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.12/968,203, entitled “SYSTEM, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FORPERFORMING ONE OR MORE ACTIONS BASED ON A DETERMINED ACCESS PERMISSIONSFOR A PLURALITY OF USERS”, issued Dec. 30, 2014 as U.S. Pat. No.8,925,041, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication 61/320,200, entitled “PORTAL SECURITY HEALTH CHECK,” filedApr. 1, 2010, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein byreference.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

One or more implementations relate generally to analyzing system data,and more particularly to performing one or more actions based on theanalysis of system data.

BACKGROUND

The subject matter discussed in the background section should not beassumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in thebackground section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the backgroundsection or associated with the subject matter of the background sectionshould not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the priorart. The subject matter in the background section merely representsdifferent approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions.

In conventional systems, it may be desirable to analyze and optimize oneor more elements present in a system. For example, an entity may desirean optimized portal configuration within their system. Unfortunately,conventional analysis and optimization systems have been associated withvarious limitations.

Just by way of example, traditional methods of analyzing and optimizingone or more elements present in a system may involve collecting a largevolume of different types of data within a system. The volume anddiversity of this system data, in addition to the necessity forretrieval of data for multiple users, may make data collection andanalysis prohibitive for an entity. Further, the entity may beunfamiliar with the system and/or optimizations recommended for thesystem. Accordingly, it is desirable to provide techniques that simplifydata collection and analysis.

BRIEF SUMMARY

In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms andmethods for performing one or more actions based on determined accesspermissions for a plurality of users. These mechanisms and methods forperforming one or more actions based on determined access permissionsfor a plurality of users can enable improved data collection andanalysis, enhanced client knowledge of system access, etc.

In an embodiment and by way of example, a method for performing one ormore actions based on determined access permissions for a plurality ofusers is provided. In one embodiment, a plurality of users withrestricted access to a multi-tenant system is identified. Additionally,access permissions of the plurality of users to the system aredetermined. Further, one or more actions are performed, based on thedetermined access permissions.

While one or more implementations and techniques are described withreference to an embodiment in which performing one or more actions basedon determined access permissions for a plurality of users is implementedin a system having an application server providing a front end for anon-demand database system capable of supporting multiple tenants, theone or more implementations and techniques are not limited tomulti-tenant databases nor deployment on application servers.Embodiments may be practiced using other database architectures, i.e.,ORACLE®, DB2® by IBM and the like without departing from the scope ofthe embodiments claimed.

Any of the above embodiments may be used alone or together with oneanother in any combination. The one or more implementations encompassedwithin this specification may also include embodiments that are onlypartially mentioned or alluded to or are not mentioned or alluded to atall in this brief summary or in the abstract. Although variousembodiments may have been motivated by various deficiencies with theprior art, which may be discussed or alluded to in one or more places inthe specification, the embodiments do not necessarily address any ofthese deficiencies. In other words, different embodiments may addressdifferent deficiencies that may be discussed in the specification. Someembodiments may only partially address some deficiencies or just onedeficiency that may be discussed in the specification, and someembodiments may not address any of these deficiencies.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the following drawings like reference numbers are used to refer tolike elements. Although the following figures depict various examples,the one or more implementations are not limited to the examples depictedin the figures.

FIG. 1 illustrates a method for performing one or more actions based ondetermined access permissions for a plurality of users, in accordancewith one embodiment;

FIG. 2 illustrates a method for performing a portal security healthcheck of a multi-tenant on-demand database system, in accordance withanother embodiment;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary interface for accessing a portal healthcheck tool in an administration setup, in accordance with yet anotherembodiment;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary user flow for accessing the portalhealth check report, in accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary description page, in accordance withanother embodiment;

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary scheduled report information page, inaccordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 7 illustrates an exemplary report summary, in accordance withanother embodiment;

FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplary administrator and user permissionsreport summary, in accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary first part of an object permissions andFLS report, in accordance with another embodiment;

FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary profile drill down, in accordance withone embodiment;

FIG. 11 illustrates an exemplary sharing organization wide defaultsreport, in accordance with another embodiment;

FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary sharing rules report, in accordancewith one embodiment;

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary manual and apex managed sharing reportpage, in accordance with another embodiment;

FIG. 14 illustrates an exemplary list of related portal users page, inaccordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 15 illustrates an exemplary object records page, in accordance withanother embodiment;

FIG. 16 illustrates an exemplary access reasons page, in accordance withone embodiment;

FIG. 17 illustrates an exemplary territories report page, in accordancewith another embodiment;

FIG. 18 illustrates an exemplary document folders report page, inaccordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 19 illustrates an exemplary report folders report page, inaccordance with another embodiment;

FIG. 20 illustrates an exemplary dashboard folders report page, inaccordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 21 illustrates an exemplary email template folders report page, inaccordance with another embodiment;

FIG. 22 illustrates an exemplary list views report page, in accordancewith one embodiment;

FIG. 23 illustrates an exemplary queues report page, in accordance withanother embodiment;

FIG. 24 illustrates an exemplary public groups report page, inaccordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 25 illustrates an exemplary content workspace report page, inaccordance with another embodiment;

FIG. 26 illustrates a block diagram of an example of an environmentwherein an on-demand database system might be used; and

FIG. 27 illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment of elements of FIG.9 and various possible interconnections between these elements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

General Overview

Systems and methods are provided for performing one or more actionsbased on determined access permissions for a plurality of users.

As used herein, the term multi-tenant database system refers to thosesystems in which various elements of hardware and software of thedatabase system may be shared by one or more customers. For example, agiven application server may simultaneously process requests for a greatnumber of customers, and a given database table may store rows for apotentially much greater number of customers.

Next, mechanisms and methods for performing one or more actions based ondetermined access permissions for a plurality of users will be describedwith reference to example embodiments.

FIG. 1 illustrates a method 100 for performing one or more actions basedon determined access permissions for a plurality of users, in accordancewith one embodiment. As shown in operation 102, a plurality of userswith restricted access to a multi-tenant system is identified. In oneembodiment, the plurality of users may include any users of themulti-tenant system without full access to the multi-tenant system. Forexample, the plurality of users may include users outside of themulti-tenant system that do not have fully functional access to thesystem, have restricted access to the system, etc. In anotherembodiment, the plurality of users may include a plurality of portalusers. For example, a customer of the multi-tenant system may in turnhave a plurality of portal customers that have limited access to themulti-tenant system (e.g., through a portal such as a web interface,etc.). In yet another embodiment, the plurality of users may beassociated with one or more groups within the system (e.g., may becustomers of one or more organizations within the system, etc.).

Additionally, in one embodiment, the multi-tenant system may include anysystem that includes a plurality of tenants (e.g., customers, users,etc.). For example, the multi-tenant system may include a multi-tenantcomputer system. In another example, the multi-tenant system may includea multi-tenant database system, (e.g., a multi-tenant on-demand databasesystem, etc.).

It should be noted that, as described above, the multi-tenant on-demanddatabase system may include any service that relies on a database systemthat is accessible over a network, in which various elements of hardwareand software of the database system may be shared by one or morecustomers (e.g. tenants). For instance, a given application server maysimultaneously process requests for a great number of customers, and agiven database table may store rows for a potentially much greaternumber of customers. Various examples of such a multi-tenant on-demanddatabase system will be set forth in the context of differentembodiments that will be described during reference to subsequentfigures.

Further, as shown in operation 104, access permissions of the pluralityof users to the system are determined. In one embodiment, determiningthe access permissions of the plurality of users may include determiningone or more data elements in the system that are accessible by theplurality of users. In another embodiment, determining the accesspermissions of the plurality of users may include determining one ormore system permissions granted to the plurality of users. Of course,however, determining the access permissions of the plurality of users tothe system may include determining any elements associated with accessto the system by the plurality of users.

In another embodiment, the access permissions of the plurality of usersto the system may be determined by monitoring one or more elements ofaccess to the system. For example, determining the access permissionsmay include monitoring administrator and user permissions for thesystem. In another example, determining the access permissions mayinclude monitoring object permissions and field level security (FLS) forthe system. In yet another example, determining the access permissionsmay include monitoring sharing organization wide defaults for thesystem, sharing rules for the system, manual and apex managed sharing,etc.

Additionally, in one example, determining the access permissions mayinclude monitoring territories of the system. In another example,determining the access permissions may include monitoring documentfolders, report folders, dashboard folders, email template folders, etc.Further, in yet another example, determining the access permissions mayinclude monitoring list views of the system. In still another example,determining the access permissions may include monitoring queues of thesystem, public groups of the system, a content workspace of the system,etc.

In another embodiment, the monitoring of one or more elements of accessto the system may be performed on a constant basis. In yet anotherembodiment, the monitoring of one or more elements of access to thesystem may be performed in an on-demand fashion (e.g., as a snapshot ofthe current access, etc.). Additionally, in one embodiment, themonitoring of one or more elements of access to the system may beperformed according to a schedule. Of course, however, the monitoringmay be performed in any manner.

In another embodiment, monitoring the one or more elements of access tothe system may include querying the system for information. For example,one or more queries to the system may be performed for each organizationassociated with the system in order to retrieve information associatedwith the access permissions of the plurality of users.

Further, in one embodiment, determining the access permissions mayinclude tracking access via a portal by the plurality of users. Forexample, one or more elements of portal access data may be retrieved. Inanother embodiment, determining the access permissions may includetracking a potential for usage of one or more system elements by theplurality of users via the portal. For example it may be determined howmany portal users have access to a particular element of the system viathe portal.

Further still, as shown in operation 106, one or more actions areperformed, based on the determined access permissions. In oneembodiment, performing the one or more actions may include notifying aclient (e.g., a customer, administrator, etc.) of the multi-tenantsystem about the access permissions of the plurality of users. Inanother embodiment, performing the one or more actions may includedisplaying a report to a client of the system. For example, the accesspermissions of the plurality of the users may be aggregated, and areport may be provided to the client that summarizes the accesspermissions of the plurality of the users, utilizing the aggregation.

In another embodiment, specific system data may be highlighted to theclient. For example, one or more data elements within the system (e.g.,objects, files, applications, etc.) may be listed as being accessible byone or more of the plurality of users. In another example, specificpermissions given to one or more of the plurality of users may beprovided to the client. In this way, the client may be made aware ofdata access and access permissions within the system and may be able todetermine whether such access is desirable or undesirable.

Additionally, in one embodiment, numeric statistical data may beprovided to the client. For example, a number of objects (e.g., accountobjects, etc.) accessible by one or more of the plurality of users maybe provided to the client. In another embodiment, the determined accesspermissions may be provided via a summary page. For example, a summarypage may list the aggregated access permissions of the plurality ofusers, where such access may be listed hierarchically by category (e.g.,permissions, objects accessed, users with access, etc.).

Further, in another embodiment, one or more links may be provided to theclient. For example, one or more hyperlinks may be provided within thereport that link to one or more setup pages associated with the reportedaccess, such that the client may select the hyperlink and change one ormore settings associated with the reported access. In another example,the one or more links may retrieve additional information associatedwith the determined access permissions (e.g., a details summary ofretrieved portal information, etc.). In this way, a general overview ofthe determined access permissions may be provided to the client, wherethe client may access a more details view of such determined accesspermissions, and may further alter system elements based on thedetermined access.

Further still, in one embodiment, one or more actions may be taken inresponse to the determined access permissions being run againstpreconfigured logic. For example, the determined access permissions maybe compared against a predetermined amount of access, and one or moreoperations may be performed based on the comparison (e.g., an alert maybe triggered if an amount of access exceeds a predetermined amount,etc.). In another example, it may be determined whether particularaccess is allowed by comparing the determined access permissions againstone or more criteria, and if such particular access is allowed, one ormore settings, data, etc. may be automatically modified in the system.

In another embodiment, access to the report may be restricted. Forexample, one or more permissions may be required to view the report. Inyet another embodiment, the report may be provided according to aschedule. Also, in one embodiment, results of the report may be saved.For example, a history of reports may be compiled, and such savedreports may be compared against each other as well as new reports, maybe analyzed for one or more trends, etc.

In this way, a client may be made aware of a state of user access to thesystem, and may determine whether such state of user access isappropriate. Additionally, in a system having numerous places to changesettings associated with users with restricted access, a client mayreview a report summarizing the current access of the plurality of usersto the system and may have a broad view of what such user can accesswithout having to view individual system access aspects one at a time.

FIG. 2 illustrates a method 200 for performing a portal security healthcheck of a multi-tenant on-demand database system, in accordance withanother embodiment. As an option, the present method 200 may be carriedout in the context of the functionality of FIG. 1. Of course, however,the method 200 may be carried out in any desired environment. Theaforementioned definitions may apply during the present description.

As shown in operation 202, a plurality of portal users associated with aclient of a multi-tenant on-demand database system is identified. In oneembodiment, the client may include a customer, user, administrator, etc.of the multi-tenant on-demand database system. In another embodiment,the plurality of portal users may include customers of the client,partners or other associates of the client, or any users associated withthe client that are not themselves clients of the multi-tenant on-demanddatabase system. In yet another embodiment, the portal users may accessdata within the multi-tenant on-demand database system utilizing aportal (e.g., a third party interface such as a web page, software,etc.). Of course, however, the portal may include any means for usersother than clients of the system to access data within the system.

Additionally, as shown in operation 204, the access of the plurality ofportal users to the multi-tenant on-demand database system is monitored.In one embodiment, an access of records within the multi-tenanton-demand database system by the plurality of portal users may beidentified. For example, system record access achieved by one or more ofthe plurality of portal users through manual sharing, Apex managedsharing, territories, list views, groups, queues, teams, contentworkspaces, folders, etc. may be identified.

Further, as shown in operation 206, a security report is issued to theclient, based on the monitoring. In one embodiment, the results of themonitoring may be output to the client as the security report. Forexample, the report may summarize the results of the monitoring, providean analysis of the results of the monitoring, perform one or moreactions based on the results of the monitoring, etc. In this way, theclient may quickly and easily review the results of the monitoring andmay use such results to improve portal security.

In one embodiment, customer portals and partner portals may let youcollaborate with and provide services to customers and partners. Withportals, information may be shared and captured from third-party users.To ensure that information is protected, it may be important to followbest practices for portal implementation. For example, customers andpartners may access system information via portals in many ways. Withportal health check reports, this access can be easily monitored. Portalhealth check reports may show security-related portal settings andprovide information that can be used to improve portal security.

Additionally, it should be noted that portal users may access recordsvia many ways. In another embodiment, the security report may include anadministrative and user permissions report. The administrative and userpermissions can include profile permissions that may expand or restrictuser access to data. The administrative and user permissions report mayshow portal profiles and their critical permission settings. For eachprofile, the report may list the number of portal users assigned to it,and may optionally list permission settings, such as delegated portaluser administrator, send email, convert leads, edit events, editopportunity product sales price, edit tasks, transfer cases, portalsuper user, view articles, API enabled, password never expires, createworkspaces, view content in portals, export reports, run reports, etc.

Further, in another embodiment, the security report may include anobject access and field-level security report. For example, objectpermissions may specify the access that users have to standard andcustom objects. The following object permissions that may be included inthe report include read—users can only view records of this type;create—users can read and create records; edit—users can read and updaterecords; delete—users can read, edit, and delete records; etc.

In another embodiment, field-level security may specify the access thatusers have to specific fields in object records. For example, the objectaccess and field-level security report—one of the optional portal healthcheck reports—may show the number of portal profiles that can accesseach standard and custom object in a system organization. Each object'sfield-level security settings and permissions may be viewable. Theobject-specific reports may list portal profiles, showing the number ofusers assigned to each profile, the number of visible fields in anobject, the object permissions, etc. A user may drill down to portalprofile detail pages, where they may edit or clone a profile, view theusers assigned to a profile, etc. A user may also drill down tofield-level security detail pages, where they may edit the settings,etc.

Further still, in one embodiment, the security report may include asharing organization-wide defaults report. For example,organization-wide default settings may specify each object's defaultaccess level for users in a system organization. If an object's defaultaccess level is public, users with enabled object permissions (“Read,”“Create,” “Edit,” “Delete,” etc.) may be able to access records thatthey do not own. For example, if the default access setting for theaccount object is Public Read/Write, then any user with the “Read”permission on the account object may view any account record. Whensetting organization-wide defaults, a user may want to make sure they donot let portal users see objects they should not have permission toaccess.

The sharing organization-wide defaults report—one of the optional portalhealth check reports—may list standard and custom objects and thedefault access setting for each object. A user may use this report toreview and edit the organization-wide default settings that may exposerecords to portal users.

Also, in one embodiment, the security report may include a sharing rulesreport. For example, administrators may use sharing rules to give setsof users access to records they do not own. In a sharing rule, recordsowned by a set of users (such as a group, role, or territory) may beshared with another set of users. When creating sharing rules, users maywant to make sure other portal users do not see records they should nothave permission to access.

The sharing rules report—one of the optional portal health checkreports—may list all sharing rules that give portal users access torecords they do not own. For each sharing rule, the report may specifywhether any portal users have access to records, and may let a user editaccess levels for the rule. For some types of user sets (like groups,roles, and territories), a user may drill down to detail pages, wherethey can edit, delete, or manage the users in the set.

In addition, in one embodiment, the report may include multiplecategories, where each category may have its own specific needs anddifferent tables may need to be queried for each. Additionally, theremay be a list of queries that need to be run utilizing a message queueframework with asynchronous processing. In another embodiment, datarequired for the report may be stored as an XML, because of thenon-uniform nature of each of the sub-reports. This may help avoidhaving to implement a very complex schema definition and also allowedits/updates to the report without having to do schema changes. Inanother embodiment, the file may be accessible through a FFX_Blob.However, there may also be two tables which may contain summaryinformation of the report. This may indicate whether the message hasbeen processed by the messaging queue, load the top level page withoutaccessing the XML file, and load all the summary components.

Further, in one embodiment, a portal_security_report table may include atop level table that holds overall data about each report. Its fieldsmay include organization_id, fileforce fields, version_number (e.g., forpotential future versioning feature, etc.), last_run_by, last_run_date,report_status (e.g., status of processing the report), etc. In anotherembodiment, a portal_sub_report table may include a child table thatholds data specific to each category. Its fields may includeorganization_id, portal_security_report_id (e.g., foreign key to parenttable, etc.), report_category_type (e.g., there may be an enum for eachcategory type), field 1, field 2, field 3 (which may hold custom datavalues for each category), etc.

Further still, Table 1 illustrates new values which may be part ofcategory type enum. Of course, it should be noted that the values shownin Table 1 are set forth for illustrative purposes only, and thus shouldnot be construed as limiting in any manner. Additionally, the 2-tiertable structure may also support the potential adding of versioning andother features to this report.

TABLE 1 <enumItem name=“AdminAndUserPerms” dbValue=“1”apiValue=“AdminAndUserPerms” internal=“true”/>  <enumItemname=“ObjectAccessAndFLS” dbValue=“2” apiValue=“ObjectAccessAndFLS”internal=“true”/>  <enumItem name=“SharingOrgWideDefaults” dbValue=“3”apiValue=“SharingOrgWideDefaults” internal=“true”/>  <enumItemname=“CustomSharingRules” dbValue=“4” apiValue=“CustomSharingRules”internal=“true”/>  <enumItem name=“ManualAndApexManagedSharing”dbValue=“5” apiValue=“ManualAndApexManagedSharing” internal=“true”/> <enumItem name=“Territories” dbValue=“6” apiValue=“Territories”internal=“true”/>  <enumItem name=“DocumentFolders” dbValue=“7”apiValue=“DocumentFolders” internal=“true”/>  <enumItemname=“ReportFolders” dbValue=“8” apiValue=“ReportFolders”internal=“true”/>  <enumItem name=“DashboardFolders” dbValue=“9”apiValue=“DashboardFolders” internal=“true”/>  <enumItemname=“EmailTemplateFolders” dbValue=“10” apiValue=“EmailTemplateFolders”internal=“true”/>  <enumItem name=“ListViews” dbValue=“11”apiValue=“ListViews” internal=“true”/>  <enumItem name=“Queues”dbValue=“12” apiValue=“Queues” internal=“true”/>  <enumItemname=“PublicGroups” dbValue=“13” apiValue=“PublicGroups”internal=“true”/>  <enumItem name=“ContentWorkspace” dbValue=“14”apiValue=“ContentWorkspace” internal=“true”/>

In another embodiment, with respect to a messaging queue, when a systemadministrator hits ‘Run Report,’ a message may be enqueued from thecontroller of that page. Once the message is processed, a new XML filewith all the queried data may be created, and the summary may be writtento the one or both database tables. In yet another embodiment, withrespect to XML parsing, once a report has been run it may be stored inthe database system as an XML file. In one embodiment, a parser may beused to parse the file into objects. These objects may then be availableglobally to all the controllers of the page, which may need to havegetters for almost all the fields on the objects.

In one implementation, a class structure may be developed for asubreports and subreport container used both for the generation andparsing of the XML file.

Additionally, with respect to performance, in one embodiment, the reportmay not need to be high performing and the user's interaction with thereport may be designed to reflect this. In addition, it may be a setupentity that is only accessible by system administrators. In anotherembodiment, performance may be improved by making each sub-report havean XML file of its own, which may enable the sub-reports to be processedparallel to each other, and the file may then be a zip file thatcontains multiple XML files. In one embodiment, the XML files may becached in Memcache.

In one embodiment, reports can be created via a template. For example,while in a web-browsing embodiment, almost all the report pages may havea summary section at the top which is similar and a detail section atthe bottom sufficiently different enough to warrant a separate page foreach section. A template may be used to render the summary section ofeach page. In one embodiment, there may be a hierarchy structure for thecontrollers for these embedded pages.

Further, with respect to a user interface, there may be pages withgraphical content embedded in the reports (e.g. via salesforce.com'sVisualforce technology). In one embodiment, the graphical content may becreated as a part of or as the entirety of a report.

In another embodiment, customer and partner portals may be used bycustomers to provide access to their end customers and partners. In oneembodiment, portals may allow an organization to share their data withusers other than its own users and employees and collaborate with othersas part of their business processes. Security around these portals maybe very important, so that customers may avoid exposing companyconfidential information with 3rd party users.

Additionally, in one embodiment, the report tool may be available aspart of a security controls section in the setup hierarchy: Setup>AdminSetup>Security Controls>Portal Health Check. FIG. 3 shows an exemplaryinterface 300 for accessing the portal health check tool in theadministration setup. In another embodiment, one or more permissions maybe needed to access the report. For example, view setup andconfiguration, customize application, manage users, and modify all datapermissions may be necessary to access the report.

Further, in one embodiment, at a high level administrators (e.g., withthe right permissions) can run the report and drill down latest reportresults. FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary user flow 400 for accessing theportal health check report. In another embodiment, when administratorscome to the report page for the first time, they may see the descriptionpage with a run button. FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary description page500, in accordance with one embodiment. In yet another embodiment, thereport may run as a batch report, and administrators may see thescheduled report information. FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary scheduledreport information page 600, in accordance with one embodiment.

Further still, in one embodiment, when the report is completed, theindividual who scheduled the report may get an email notification. Inanother embodiment, administrators may navigate to the portal healthcheck report page to see the summary of the report results. For example,the report may be broken down to the logical categories in order to makethe results contextual and readable. Categories may include: admin anduser permissions, object permissions and FLS, sharing org wide defaults,sharing rules, manual and apex managed sharing, territories, documentfolders, report folders, dashboard folders, email template folders, listviews, queues, public groups, content workspace, etc. FIG. 7 illustratesan exemplary report summary 700, in accordance with one embodiment.

Also, in one embodiment, at the top of each drill down report, the samesummary information may be repeated. FIG. 8 illustrates an exemplaryadministrator and user permissions report summary 800, in accordancewith one embodiment. In another embodiment, the permission report mayallow users to filter the result by all portal profiles and by aspecific portal profile. In another embodiment, administrators may seehow many portal users would have what type of permissions by profile. Inyet another embodiment, the following permissions may be checked:delegated portal user admin, send email, convert leads, edit events,edit opportunity product sales price, edit tasks, transfer any case,portal super user, view knowledge, API enabled, password never expires,create workspaces, view content, export reports, run reports, etc. Inanother embodiment, profile drill down may take users to the standardprofile page.

Additionally, in another embodiment, the object permissions and FLSreport may be broken into two parts. FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplaryfirst part 900 of the object permissions and FLS report, which mayprovide information on how many portal profiles have access to whichobject. FIG. 10 illustrates an exemplary profile drill down 1000, whichmay take users to the page where administrators can easily see theobject level permissions for each object for the selected profile. Eachrow may also provide the number of visible fields for the object-profilecombination. FLS drill down may take users to the standard FLS UI forthe related object.

FIG. 11 illustrates an exemplary sharing organization wide defaultsreport 1100, in accordance with one embodiment. In another embodiment,the sharing OWD report may be similar to the standard sharing page.However, this report may provide the portal context. Administrators maysee how many portal users are getting what type of access to whichobjects. The edit button may take the user to the sharing OWD edit page.

FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary sharing rules report 1200, inaccordance with one embodiment. In another embodiment, the customsharing rules report may be similar to the standard sharing page.However, this report may provide the portal context. Administrators maysee how many portal users are getting what type access to which objects.The edit action links may take a user to the specific sharing rule editpage.

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary manual and apex managed sharing reportpage 1300, in accordance with one embodiment. In another embodiment, themanual sharing report may have two parts. The first page provides highlevel information on which objects can be accessed by portal users viamanual or apex managed sharing. Additionally, in one embodiment, viewusers column drill down may takes administrators to the list of relatedportal users page. FIG. 14 illustrates an exemplary list of relatedportal users page 1400, in accordance with one embodiment. In anotherembodiment, view records may drill down takes users to the list ofrecords (e.g., accessible via manual sharing or apex managed sharing)for a given object and for a given user. FIG. 15 illustrates anexemplary object records page 1500, in accordance with one embodiment.Further, in one embodiment, the why column may take a user to a pagewhere they can see why the given users can access a given record. FIG.16 illustrates an exemplary access reasons page 1600, in accordance withone embodiment.

Also, in another embodiment, a territories report may have two parts.For example, a first page may provide high level information about thenumber of account, opportunity and leads records for each territory thatexist relating to the portal users. Territory drill downs may take usersto the territory setup page. FIG. 17 illustrates an exemplaryterritories report page 1700, in accordance with one embodiment.

In addition, in one embodiment, folder reports may all be a similar typeof report. A document folders report may show all the document foldersthat are accessible by the portal users. It may provide access level,access settings, number of items in folders and number of portal userswho have access to these folders. FIG. 18 illustrates an exemplarydocument folders report page 1800, in accordance with one embodiment.Further, in another embodiment, a reports folders report may show allthe report folders that are accessible by the portal users. It mayprovide access level, access settings, number of items in folders and anumber of portal users who have access to these folders. FIG. 19illustrates an exemplary report folders report page 1900, in accordancewith one embodiment.

Further still, in one embodiment, a dashboard folders report may showall the dashboard folders that are accessible by the portal users. Itmay provide access level, access settings, number of items in foldersand number of portal users who have access to these folders. FIG. 20illustrates an exemplary dashboard folders report page 2000, inaccordance with one embodiment. Also, in another embodiment, an emailtemplate folders report may show all the email template folders that areaccessible by the portal users. It may provide access level, accesssettings, number of items in folders and number of portal users who haveaccess to these folders. FIG. 21 illustrates an exemplary email templatefolders report page 2100, in accordance with one embodiment.

Additionally, in another embodiment, a list views report may display allthe list views which portal users can access. It may provide filteringbased on objects and may allow drill down to list view edit pages andlist of portal users page. FIG. 22 illustrates an exemplary list viewsreport page 2200, in accordance with one embodiment. Further, a queuesreport may display all the queues which portal users are members. It mayallow drill down to a queue details edit page and a list of portal userspage. FIG. 23 illustrates an exemplary queues report page 2300, inaccordance with one embodiment.

Further still, in one embodiment, a public groups report may display allthe public groups which portal users are members. It may allow drilldown to group details edit page and list of portal users page. FIG. 24illustrates an exemplary public groups report page 2400, in accordancewith one embodiment. Also, in another embodiment, a content workspacereport may show all the content workspaces that are accessible by theportal users. It may provide a number of portal users based on theiraccess levels, access level, the number of items in workspaces, etc.FIG. 25 illustrates an exemplary content workspace report page 2500, inaccordance with one embodiment.

System Overview

FIG. 26 illustrates a block diagram of an environment 2610 wherein anon-demand database system might be used. Environment 2610 may includeuser systems 2612, network 2614, system 2616, processor system 2617,application platform 2618, network interface 2620, tenant data storage2622, system data storage 2624, program code 2626, and process space2628. In other embodiments, environment 10 may not have all of thecomponents listed and/or may have other elements instead of, or inaddition to, those listed above.

Environment 2610 is an environment in which an on-demand database systemexists. User system 2612 may be any machine or system that is used by auser to access a database user system. For example, any of user systems2612 can be a handheld computing device, a mobile phone, a laptopcomputer, a work station, and/or a network of computing devices. Asillustrated in FIG. 26 (and in more detail in FIG. 27) user systems 2612might interact via a network 2614 with an on-demand database system,which is system 2616.

An on-demand database system, such as system 2616, is a database systemthat is made available to outside users that do not need to necessarilybe concerned with building and/or maintaining the database system, butinstead may be available for their use when the users need the databasesystem (e.g., on the demand of the users). Some on-demand databasesystems may store information from one or more tenants stored intotables of a common database image to form a multi-tenant database system(MTS). Accordingly, “on-demand database system 2616” and “system 2616”will be used interchangeably herein. A database image may include one ormore database objects. A relational database management system (RDMS) orthe equivalent may execute storage and retrieval of information againstthe database object(s). Application platform 2618 may be a frameworkthat allows the applications of system 2616 to run, such as the hardwareand/or software, e.g., the operating system. In an embodiment, on-demanddatabase system 2616 may include an application platform 2618 thatenables creation, managing and executing one or more applicationsdeveloped by the provider of the on-demand database system, usersaccessing the on-demand database system via user systems 2612, or thirdparty application developers accessing the on-demand database system viauser systems 2612.

The users of user systems 2612 may differ in their respectivecapacities, and the capacity of a particular user system 2612 might beentirely determined by permissions (permission levels) for the currentuser. For example, where a salesperson is using a particular user system2612 to interact with system 2616, that user system has the capacitiesallotted to that salesperson. However, while an administrator is usingthat user system to interact with system 2616, that user system has thecapacities allotted to that administrator. In systems with ahierarchical role model, users at one permission level may have accessto applications, data, and database information accessible by a lowerpermission level user, but may not have access to certain applications,database information, and data accessible by a user at a higherpermission level. Thus, different users will have different capabilitieswith regard to accessing and modifying application and databaseinformation, depending on a user's security or permission level.

Network 2614 is any network or combination of networks of devices thatcommunicate with one another. For example, network 2614 can be any oneor any combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide areanetwork), telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network,star network, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriateconfiguration. As the most common type of computer network in currentuse is a TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol)network, such as the global internetwork of networks often referred toas the “Internet” with a capital “I,” that network will be used in manyof the examples herein. However, it should be understood that thenetworks that the one or more implementations might use are not solimited, although TCP/IP is a frequently implemented protocol.

User systems 2612 might communicate with system 2616 using TCP/IP and,at a higher network level, use other common Internet protocols tocommunicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTPis used, user system 2612 might include an HTTP client commonly referredto as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP messages to and from anHTTP server at system 2616. Such an HTTP server might be implemented asthe sole network interface between system 2616 and network 2614, butother techniques might be used as well or instead. In someimplementations, the interface between system 2616 and network 2614includes load sharing functionality, such as round-robin HTTP requestdistributors to balance loads and distribute incoming HTTP requestsevenly over a plurality of servers. At least as for the users that areaccessing that server, each of the plurality of servers has access tothe MTS' data; however, other alternative configurations may be usedinstead.

In one embodiment, system 2616, shown in FIG. 26, implements a web-basedcustomer relationship management (CRM) system. For example, in oneembodiment, system 2616 includes application servers configured toimplement and execute CRM software applications as well as providerelated data, code, forms, webpages and other information to and fromuser systems 2612 and to store to, and retrieve from, a database systemrelated data, objects, and Webpage content. With a multi-tenant system,data for multiple tenants may be stored in the same physical databaseobject, however, tenant data typically is arranged so that data of onetenant is kept logically separate from that of other tenants so that onetenant does not have access to another tenant's data, unless such datais expressly shared. In certain embodiments, system 2616 implementsapplications other than, or in addition to, a CRM application. Forexample, system 2616 may provide tenant access to multiple hosted(standard and custom) applications, including a CRM application. User(or third party developer) applications, which may or may not includeCRM, may be supported by the application platform 2618, which managescreation, storage of the applications into one or more database objectsand executing of the applications in a virtual machine in the processspace of the system 2616.

One arrangement for elements of system 2616 is shown in FIG. 26,including a network interface 2620, application platform 2618, tenantdata storage 2622 for tenant data 2623, system data storage 2624 forsystem data 2625 accessible to system 2616 and possibly multipletenants, program code 2626 for implementing various functions of system2616, and a process space 2628 for executing MTS system processes andtenant-specific processes, such as running applications as part of anapplication hosting service. Additional processes that may execute onsystem 2616 include database indexing processes.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 26 include conventional,well-known elements that are explained only briefly here. For example,each user system 2612 could include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any wireless access protocol(WAP) enabled device or any other computing device capable ofinterfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other networkconnection. User system 2612 typically runs an HTTP client, e.g., abrowsing program, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser,Netscape's Navigator browser, Opera's browser, or a WAP-enabled browserin the case of a cell phone, PDA or other wireless device, or the like,allowing a user (e.g., subscriber of the multi-tenant database system)of user system 2612 to access, process and view information, pages andapplications available to it from system 2616 over network 2614. Eachuser system 2612 also typically includes one or more user interfacedevices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, trackball, touch pad, touchscreen, pen or the like, for interacting with a graphical user interface(GUI) provided by the browser on a display (e.g., a monitor screen, LCDdisplay, etc.) in conjunction with pages, forms, applications and otherinformation provided by system 2616 or other systems or servers. Forexample, the user interface device can be used to access data andapplications hosted by system 2616, and to perform searches on storeddata, and otherwise allow a user to interact with various GUI pages thatmay be presented to a user. As discussed above, embodiments are suitablefor use with the Internet, which refers to a specific globalinternetwork of networks. However, it should be understood that othernetworks can be used instead of the Internet, such as an intranet, anextranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network,any LAN or WAN or the like.

According to one embodiment, each user system 2612 and all of itscomponents are operator configurable using applications, such as abrowser, including computer code run using a central processing unitsuch as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, system 2616(and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) andall of their components might be operator configurable usingapplication(s) including computer code to run using a central processingunit such as processor system 2617, which may include an Intel Pentium®processor or the like, and/or multiple processor units. A computerprogram product embodiment includes a machine-readable storage medium(media) having instructions stored thereon/in which can be used toprogram a computer to perform any of the processes of the embodimentsdescribed herein. Computer code for operating and configuring system2616 to intercommunicate and to process webpages, applications and otherdata and media content as described herein are preferably downloaded andstored on a hard disk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof,may also be stored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory mediumor device as is well known, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on anymedia capable of storing program code, such as any type of rotatingmedia including floppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk(DVD), compact disk (CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, andmagnetic or optical cards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs),or any type of media or device suitable for storing instructions and/ordata. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof, may betransmitted and downloaded from a software source over a transmissionmedium, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server, as is wellknown, or transmitted over any other conventional network connection asis well known (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using any communicationmedium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet, etc.) as arewell known. It will also be appreciated that computer code forimplementing embodiments can be implemented in any programming languagethat can be executed on a client system and/or server or server systemsuch as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any other markup language, Java™,JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scripting language, such as VBScript, andmany other programming languages as are well known may be used. (Java™is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.).

According to one embodiment, each system 2616 is configured to providewebpages, forms, applications, data and media content to user (client)systems 2612 to support the access by user systems 2612 as tenants ofsystem 2616. As such, system 2616 provides security mechanisms to keepeach tenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than oneMTS is used, they may be located in close proximity to one another(e.g., in a server farm located in a single building or campus), or theymay be distributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one ormore servers located in city A and one or more servers located in cityB). As used herein, each MTS could include one or more logically and/orphysically connected servers distributed locally or across one or moregeographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant toinclude a computer system, including processing hardware and processspace(s), and an associated storage system and database application(e.g., OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. It should also beunderstood that “server system” and “server” are often usedinterchangeably herein. Similarly, the database object described hereincan be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, acollection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online oroffline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include adistributed database or storage network and associated processingintelligence.

FIG. 27 also illustrates environment 2610. However, in FIG. 27 elementsof system 2616 and various interconnections in an embodiment are furtherillustrated. FIG. 27 shows that user system 2612 may include processorsystem 2612A, memory system 2612B, input system 2612C, and output system2612D. FIG. 27 shows network 2614 and system 2616. FIG. 27 also showsthat system 2616 may include tenant data storage 2622, tenant data 2623,system data storage 2624, system data 2625, User Interface (UI) 2730,Application Program Interface (API) 2732, PL/SOQL 2734, save routines2736, application setup mechanism 2738, applications servers27001-2700N, system process space 2702, tenant process spaces 2704,tenant management process space 2710, tenant storage area 2712, userstorage 2714, and application metadata 2716. In other embodiments,environment 2610 may not have the same elements as those listed aboveand/or may have other elements instead of, or in addition to, thoselisted above.

User system 2612, network 2614, system 2616, tenant data storage 2622,and system data storage 2624 were discussed above in FIG. 26. Regardinguser system 2612, processor system 2612A may be any combination of oneor more processors. Memory system 2612B may be any combination of one ormore memory devices, short term, and/or long term memory. Input system2612C may be any combination of input devices, such as one or morekeyboards, mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, and/or interfaces tonetworks. Output system 2612D may be any combination of output devices,such as one or more monitors, printers, and/or interfaces to networks.As shown by FIG. 27, system 2616 may include a network interface 2620(of FIG. 26) implemented as a set of HTTP application servers 2700, anapplication platform 2618, tenant data storage 2622, and system datastorage 2624. Also shown is system process space 2702, includingindividual tenant process spaces 2704 and a tenant management processspace 2710. Each application server 2700 may be configured to tenantdata storage 2622 and the tenant data 2623 therein, and system datastorage 2624 and the system data 2625 therein to serve requests of usersystems 2612. The tenant data 2623 might be divided into individualtenant storage areas 2712, which can be either a physical arrangementand/or a logical arrangement of data. Within each tenant storage area2712, user storage 2714 and application metadata 2716 might be similarlyallocated for each user. For example, a copy of a user's most recentlyused (MRU) items might be stored to user storage 2714. Similarly, a copyof MRU items for an entire organization that is a tenant might be storedto tenant storage area 2712. A UI 2730 provides a user interface and anAPI 2732 provides an application programmer interface to system 2616resident processes to users and/or developers at user systems 2612. Thetenant data and the system data may be stored in various databases, suchas one or more Oracle™ databases.

Application platform 2618 includes an application setup mechanism 2738that supports application developers' creation and management ofapplications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage2622 by save routines 2736 for execution by subscribers as one or moretenant process spaces 2704 managed by tenant management process 2710 forexample. Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL2734 that provides a programming language style interface extension toAPI 2732. A detailed description of some PL/SOQL language embodiments isdiscussed in commonly owned U.S. Provisional Patent Application60/828,192 entitled, PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE METHOD AND SYSTEM FOREXTENDING APIS TO EXECUTE IN CONJUNCTION WITH DATABASE APIS, by CraigWeissman, filed Oct. 4, 2006, which is incorporated in its entiretyherein for all purposes. Invocations to applications may be detected byone or more system processes, which manages retrieving applicationmetadata 2716 for the subscriber making the invocation and executing themetadata as an application in a virtual machine.

Each application server 2700 may be communicably coupled to databasesystems, e.g., having access to system data 2625 and tenant data 2623,via a different network connection. For example, one application server27001 might be coupled via the network 2614 (e.g., the Internet),another application server 2700N−1 might be coupled via a direct networklink, and another application server 2700N might be coupled by yet adifferent network connection. Transfer Control Protocol and InternetProtocol (TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating betweenapplication servers 2700 and the database system. However, it will beapparent to one skilled in the art that other transport protocols may beused to optimize the system depending on the network interconnect used.

In certain embodiments, each application server 2700 is configured tohandle requests for any user associated with any organization that is atenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove applicationservers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there ispreferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to aspecific application server 2700. In one embodiment, therefore, aninterface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the applicationservers 2700 and the user systems 2612 to distribute requests to theapplication servers 2700. In one embodiment, the load balancer uses aleast connections algorithm to route user requests to the applicationservers 2700. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as roundrobin and observed response time, also can be used. For example, incertain embodiments, three consecutive requests from the same user couldhit three different application servers 2700, and three requests fromdifferent users could hit the same application server 2700. In thismanner, system 2616 is multi-tenant, wherein system 2616 handles storageof, and access to, different objects, data and applications acrossdisparate users and organizations.

As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs asales force where each salesperson uses system 2616 to manage theirsales process. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data,customer follow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data,etc., all applicable to that user's personal sales process (e.g., intenant data storage 2622). In an example of a MTS arrangement, since allof the data and the applications to access, view, modify, report,transmit, calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a usersystem having nothing more than network access, the user can manage hisor her sales efforts and cycles from any of many different user systems.For example, if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customerhas Internet access in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain criticalupdates as to that customer while waiting for the customer to arrive inthe lobby.

While each user's data might be separate from other users' dataregardless of the employers of each user, some data might beorganization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users orall of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, theremight be some data structures managed by system 2616 that are allocatedat the tenant level while other data structures might be managed at theuser level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants includingpossible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keepdata, applications, and application use separate. Also, because manytenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their ownsystem, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions thatmay be implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data andtenant specific data, system 2616 might also maintain system level datausable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data mightinclude industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharableamong tenants.

In certain embodiments, user systems 2612 (which may be client systems)communicate with application servers 2700 to request and updatesystem-level and tenant-level data from system 2616 that may requiresending one or more queries to tenant data storage 2622 and/or systemdata storage 2624. System 2616 (e.g., an application server 2700 insystem 2616) automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g.,one or more SQL queries) that are designed to access the desiredinformation. System data storage 2624 may generate query plans to accessthe requested data from the database.

Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, suchas a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefinedcategories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may beused herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and customobjects. It should be understood that “table” and “object” may be usedinterchangeably herein. Each table generally contains one or more datacategories logically arranged as columns or fields in a viewable schema.Each row or record of a table contains an instance of data for eachcategory defined by the fields. For example, a CRM database may includea table that describes a customer with fields for basic contactinformation such as name, address, phone number, fax number, etc.Another table might describe a purchase order, including fields forinformation such as customer, product, sale price, date, etc. In somemulti-tenant database systems, standard entity tables might be providedfor use by all tenants. For CRM database applications, such standardentities might include tables for Account, Contact, Lead, andOpportunity data, each containing pre-defined fields. It should beunderstood that the word “entity” may also be used interchangeablyherein with “object” and “table”.

In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be allowed to createand store custom objects, or they may be allowed to customize standardentities or objects, for example by creating custom fields for standardobjects, including custom index fields. U.S. patent application Ser. No.10/817,161, filed Apr. 2, 2004, entitled “Custom Entities and Fields ina Multi-Tenant Database System”, and which is hereby incorporated hereinby reference, teaches systems and methods for creating custom objects aswell as customizing standard objects in a multi-tenant database system.In certain embodiments, for example, all custom entity data rows arestored in a single multi-tenant physical table, which may containmultiple logical tables per organization. It is transparent to customersthat their multiple “tables” are in fact stored in one large table orthat their data may be stored in the same table as the data of othercustomers.

While one or more implementations have been described by way of exampleand in terms of the specific embodiments, it is to be understood thatone or more implementations are not limited to the disclosedembodiments. To the contrary, it is intended to cover variousmodifications and similar arrangements as would be apparent to thoseskilled in the art. Therefore, the scope of the appended claims shouldbe accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all suchmodifications and similar arrangements.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: reportingaccessibility of a plurality of users provided access via a portal to aplurality of client data objects stored in tangible memory, wherein theplurality of client data objects are grouped as a client data set,including: identifying one or more group-based or role-based systempermissions that give at least some users access to the client dataobjects in the client data set; identifying one or more sharing rulesthat give at least some users access to shared client data objects inthe client data set; and for at least a subset of the client dataobjects in the client data set, generating data and at least commencingnotifying a client using the data generated, of the group-based orrole-based system permissions and the one or more sharing rulesidentified as giving to users access via the portal to the subset of theclient data objects.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein users areassociated with at least one client of a system accessible via a portaland the system limits user access to the client data set.
 3. The methodof claim 1, wherein the role-based system permissions includehierarchical role-based permissions.
 4. The method of claim 1, furtherincluding: identifying territory-based system permissions that give toat least some users access to the client data objects in the client dataset; wherein at least some users are associated with territories; andgenerating the data to further notify the client of the territory-basedsystem permissions that give to users access via the portal to thesubset of the client data objects.
 5. The method of claim 1, furtherincluding: aggregating the group-based or role-based system permissionsand sharing rules to report counts for the accessibility via the portalto the subset of the client data objects.
 6. The method of claim 5,further including: aggregating a number of users having theaccessibility via the portal to the subset of the client data objects.7. The method of claim 5, further including: aggregating a number ofuser groups having the accessibility via the portal to the subset of theclient data objects.
 8. The method of claim 5, further including:aggregating a number of the one or more sharing rules providing theaccessibility via the portal to the subset of the client data objects.9. The method of claim 1, further including: summarizing theaccessibility to contact and lead data objects included in the clientdata set.
 10. The method of claim 1, further including: summarizing theaccessibility to report data objects included in the client data set.11. The method of claim 1, further including: summarizing application ofthe one or more sharing rules by first users associated with a firstclient with second users associated with a second client.
 12. The methodof claim 1, further including: summarizing application of the one ormore sharing rules by first users associated with a first client thatshare client data with second users associated with a second client,wherein the second client is a customer or partner of the first client.13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium, includingcomputer program instructions that implement a method comprising:reporting accessibility of a plurality of users provided access via aportal to a plurality of client data objects stored in tangible memory,wherein the plurality of client data objects are grouped as a clientdata set, including: identifying one or more group-based or role-basedsystem permissions that give at least some of users, access to theclient data objects in the client data set; identifying one or moresharing rules that give at least some users access to shared client dataobjects in the client data set; and for at least a subset of the clientdata objects in the client data set, generating data and at leastcommencing notifying a client using the data generated, of thegroup-based or role-based system permissions and the one or more sharingrules identified as giving to users access via the portal to the subsetof the client data objects.
 14. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of claim 13, wherein users are associated with at leastone client of a system accessible via a portal and the system limitsuser access to the client data set.
 15. The non-transitory computerreadable storage medium of claim 13, wherein the role-based systempermissions include hierarchical role-based permissions.
 16. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, furtherincluding instructions to implement the method comprising: identifyingterritory-based system permissions that give to at least some usersaccess to the client data objects in the client data set; wherein atleast some users are associated with territories; and generating thedata to further notify the client of the territory-based systempermissions that give to users access via the portal to the subset ofthe client data objects.
 17. The non-transitory computer readablestorage medium of claim 13, further including instructions to implementthe method comprising: aggregating the group-based or role-based systempermissions and sharing rules to report counts for the accessibility viathe portal to the subset of the client data objects.
 18. Thenon-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 13, furtherincluding instructions to implement the method comprising: summarizingapplication of the one or more sharing rules by first users associatedwith a first client that share client data with second users associatedwith a second client, wherein the second client is a customer or partnerof the first client.
 19. A system comprising: a processor, memorycoupled to the processor, and computer program instructions stored inthe memory that implement a method comprising: reporting accessibilityof a plurality of users provided access via a portal to a plurality ofclient data objects stored in tangible memory, wherein the plurality ofclient data objects are grouped as a client data set, including:identifying one or more group-based or role-based system permissionsthat give at least some users access to the client data objects in theclient data set; identifying one or more sharing rules that give atleast some users access to the client data objects in the client dataset; and for at least a subset of the client data objects in the clientdata set, generating data and at least commencing notifying a clientusing the data generated, of the group-based or role-based systempermissions and the one or more sharing rules identified as giving tousers access via the portal to the subset of the client data objects.20. The system of claim 19, further including: identifyingterritory-based system permissions that give to at least some usersaccess to the client data objects in the client data set; wherein atleast some users are associated with territories; and generating thedata to further notify the client of the territory-based systempermissions that give to users access via the portal to the subset ofthe client data objects.
 21. The system of claim 19, further including:aggregating the group-based or role-based system permissions and sharingrules to report counts for the accessibility via the portal to thesubset of the client data objects.
 22. The method of claim 21, furtherincluding: aggregating a number of users having the accessibility viathe portal to the subset of the client data objects.
 23. The method ofclaim 21, further including: aggregating a number of the one or moresharing rules providing the accessibility via the portal to the subsetof the client data objects.
 24. The system of claim 19, furtherincluding: summarizing application of the one or more sharing rules byfirst users associated with a first client with second users associatedwith a second client.
 25. The system of claim 19, further including:summarizing application of the one or more sharing rules by first usersassociated with a first client that share client data with second usersassociated with a second client, wherein the second client is a customeror partner of the first client.